Tackling Kidnapping
Insecurity and Kidnapping activities across Nigeria’s major cities are making people very weary of Travelling or leaving their Homes
By Linus Okolo
A former Commissioner in Delta state was kidnapped inside her church located in the heart of Asaba, the Delta state capital. It took the quick intervention of top government officials to secure her release. Even then, during the Kidnapping process, two policemen attached to her were killed. In Oil rich Warri, precisely at Jakpa road, Effurun, Uvwie local government area, some men believed to be kidnappers killed the driver of a rice Merchant and kidnapped her. They were taking her to an unknown destination when suddenly they drove into horrible traffic along Effurun Sapele road and as the kidnappers got out of the vehicle to clear the way, the woman escaped from the vehicle. Unfortunately that was the second time she was being kidnapped.
Similarly, a woman was kidnapped along the Benin to Warri road and she was driven to a river bank where the kidnappers put her inside a speed boat and began sailing to a location known only to them. As the speed boat was on high speed, the woman shook herself and before they could say Jack Robinson, the boat capsized and everybody began to swim to safety..
The woman swam a long distance inside the river without raising her head. By the time she swam far and raised her head out of the water she didn’t see any of the kidnappers again. That was how she swam ashore and began to walk in the bush until she got to a village and a POS operator helped her to call her husband and the husband went to pick her in company of some security men the next day.
These incidences of kidnapping are just few occurrences where the kidnapped victims were lucky to have escaped or got released after payment of ransom.
Indeed, insecurity and Kidnapping for ransom have become a nightmare in Nigeria in the last few years. Though successive governments have tried to nip it in the bud, but to no avail. Hence to either travel or move around in certain places in Nigeria is now a cause for worry. This may be why many Nigerians who spoke to the magazine’s reporter say this is not the best of times, owing to the dire scaring security situation in the country.
Kidnapping is the act of abducting someone and holding the person captive. In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against his will. It is also unlawful taking and carrying away of a person by force or the unlawful seizure and detention of a person against his or her will. Abducting young women and selling them for purpose of concubinage or prostitution has also been characterised as a form of kidnapping.
Investigations revealed that the principal motives of kidnappers are to subject the victim to a form of involuntary servitude, expose such a person to danger via such criminal act or to obtain ransom for the victim’s safe release and so on. In Nigeria, many black spots now exist for kidnappers to carry out their operations. Some of the black spots are the Effurun to Port-Harcourt road, Ore to Benin expressway, Sagamu to Ijebu-Ode road, Lagos to Lokoja road, Kaduna to Abuja road, Onitsha to Gboko, Abraka to Agbor, and so on.
Tony Olisa in an interview with this reporter also disclosed that the popular Mango tree and Kirikiri market located in Asaba are equally bad spots. Investigations also revealed that kidnappers come from other states to carry out kidnapping in Lagos and the federal capital territory and after their operations they move to their locations to enjoy the ransom they have collected.
This magazine’s Reporter found out that kidnapping for the purpose of extortion has become a tactics of some former political thugs or terrorists seeking concession from the government, either at the state or federal levels. This may be why some concerned Nigerians fear that if nothing is done to tame the situation, then the country is heading for the rocks.
The root of hostage taking can be traced back to the 1990s in the Niger-Delta, where the country gets most of its’ oil. At a time armed groups started abducting foreign oil executives as a way to pressure the government to address their concerns about oil pollution in their communities. Their demands over those they held were met and it gradually fueled the Kidnapping for ransom.
In the United States the kidnapping in 1932, of the infant son of the internationally known American aviator, Charles. A. Lindbergh spurred legislation, imposing a death penalty for transporting a kidnapped victim across a state line.
Speaking with Engineer Tony Olisa, Vigilante, General Commander, Oshimili South local government, B Division unit Asaba, he noted that the high rate of unemployment is one of contributing factors to the alarming rate of insecurity. According to Engr Olisa, “When the youths are engaged, insecurity he said will be reduced”. Furthermore, Olisa stated that more youths can be engaged in vigilante service across the country, but lamented that most times those engaged as security personnel to protect the neighborhood are often excluded from government payroll. A development he says discourage many of them from taking up employment with the neighborhood watch otherwise called vigilante group.
He further explained that most of the unengaged youths are into drugs, a development that he said contributes in no small measure to insecurity and crime. Hence he averred that the NDLEA, police and other sister security agencies including the vigilante groups should be empowered to stop kidnapping.
He also urged the State Houses of Assemblies to enact a law prohibiting the sale of illicit drugs, to prevent dealers/sellers of hard drugs in every nooks and cranies of the society. Accordingly, he recommended jail terms for people selling illicit drugs or those in possession of same
Chief Innocent Ezennia, chairman Onitsha Main market, expressed almost the same feelings. According to him “bad governance and poor planning are the reason for the spate of insecurity and kidnapping. The youths he said used to be involved in robbery, car snatching, but they have now diverted to kidnapping for ransom. He explained that the failure of the government to gather statistics of our graduates and plan to get them employed in our various government establishments is fueling insecurity and kidnapping in Nigeria.
He disclosed that few years ago, Anambra state governor, Professor Charles Soludo government decided to checkmate the activities of touts collecting levy from drivers in the process of cross examination by state officials, over 25 graduates were discovered to be involved. When the Governor’s attention was drawn to the development, he moved them to Awka, trained them on skill acquisition, and settled each of them with the sum of five hundred thousand naira N500,000.
Those are things state governments should be doing to nip touting in the bud. Ezennia, stated.
Investigation also revealed that corruption among law enforcement agencies contributes greatly to insecurity and kidnapping.
A police officer who spoke under annoymity said if they want to assist a suspect who is an accomplice in a kidnapping case, they demand what he called a soft landing pay.
This he said is followed by another payment which will enable them go to the Department of Public Prosecution DPP, to have the charges watered down, so that when the matter gets to court, the suspect will be given a soft landing. In the case of a core kidnapping suspects, he noted that the suspects may not be lucky, as they may likely be eliminated midnight.
For instance in Delta state where the state commissioner of police, Olufemi Obaniwonda has zero tolerance for corruption and crime, kidnapping has been reduced to its bearest minimum.
However, it’s the expectation of Nigerians to live in a crime free society devoid of kidnapping for ransom, and if possible for people to sleep with their two eyes closed.
A source at the seat of power hinted that the federal government is concerned about the insecurity hence the President has ordered the Inspector-General of Police and the Chief of Army Staff to tackle the minance of insecurity and insurgency in order to restore peace in the country.
But how peace can be achieved in a society already riddled with corruption, coupled with the absence of good employment opportunities in addition to lack of Youth unemployment statistics make more concerned Nigerians worried about the insecurity situation in the country.